plant‑mediated bio‑synthesis of silver–montmorillonite nanocomposite and antibacterial effects on gram‑positive and ‑negative bacteria

In this project, facile, rapid biosynthesis and characterization of silver–montmorillonite (mmt) nanocomposite is carried out at ambient temperature. silver nanoparticles (ag-nps) were prepared by water extract of the plant [satureja hortensis (l)] as the reducing agent and mmt as interlamellar space for controlling the size of ag-nps. mmt was sonicated in the aqueous agno3 solution and ag+ ions were reduced to ag° using water extract of satureja hortensis (l). the nanocomposite was evaluated using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (uv–vis), x-ray diffraction (xrd), scanning electron microscopy (sem) and transmission electron microscopy (tem). tem study showed the formations of nanocomposite using water extract of satureja hortensis l in the range of 4.88–26.70 nm and an average particles size of 15.79 nm. in addition, xrd studies indicated that the particles have a face centred cubic (fcc) structure. the nanocomposite showed antibacterial effects against bacteria.